Research is continuously being performed to enable gun barrels to be subjected to ever increasing firing rates and pressures in order to increase performance, but without leading to deterioration that is too rapid.
In order to prevent a metal gun barrel heating up quickly, proposals have been made to line gun barrels with a ceramic material, in particular in the form of an inner coating or lining shrink-fitted to the inside of the gun barrel. Ceramics stand up well to high temperatures, thermal shock, wear, and corrosion, and they are also strong in compression, thereby making them suitable for such an application.
Ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) additionally provide ceramics with increased strength to withstand mechanical stresses and mechanical and thermal shocks, thereby imparting particularly advantageous thermostructural properties thereto.
Thus, the use of CMC within gun barrels has been proposed, in particular by the following patents: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,435,455, 4,464,192, and 4,581,053.
An object of the present invention is to provide a gun barrel lining of ceramic matrix composite material which is particularly adapted to its conditions of use, in particular with respect to the structure of its fiber reinforcement.